‘PML-N rigging claim admission of defeat in G-B’

Shibli Faraz says people of region ask why PML-N didn’t perform when it ruled country

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Information Senator Shibli Faraz has said the PML-N’s allegation that the PTI led federal government wants to rig the upcoming election in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) region is an admission on part of the biggest opposition party of its political defeat in the upcoming polls.

The minister on Saturday took to micro-blogging site Twitter to reject the PML-N claim that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government is pressuring its G-B leaders to change loyalties and is openly violating the code of conduct to influence the election scheduled for November 15.

“The clamour of incompetent PML-N leadership over alleged rigging in the G-B polls is an admission of their defeat. The hue and cry raised by people who have always resorted to rigging in the past won’t work,” the minister said.

“The people of the G-B know them. They ask how they [PML-N] could perform now when they could not perform during their five year rule [between 2013 through 2018],” he added.

Shibli’s statement came in response to a press conference of the PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal who on October 30 accused the government of pressuring PML-N leaders in the G-B to change loyalties.

“We have strong reservations on the code of conduct violations and the use of the federal government’s machinery in G-B polls,” Iqbal had said while addressing a press conference in Lahore.

He had urged the G-B Supreme Court and election commission to take notice of pre-poll rigging by the PTI government. He had alleged that at least nine PML-N leaders were forced to join the ruling party.

“The PM Election Cell staff and Federal Minister [for Kashmir Affairs and G-B] Ali Amin Khan Gandapur have visited every constituency of the region in violation of the election code of conduct,” he had claimed.